Walk in the Woods

This new collection started back when I heavily pregnant with our daughter Lily and I was asked to design a piece based on The Forest. At the time we were living in a very remote part of the Scottish Highlands and it was the middle of winter where the day did not break until 9am and the sun did not hit our house before 11am, by 3.30pm it had dipped below the horizon again.

We had just completed the 5 hour round trip to Inverness hospital for a growth scan and the scan had not been good. Lily had a dilated ventricle which could indicate some sever development issues for her if it continued. We had a difficult drive home in icy conditions and arrived home in the dark after an exhausting day. No one had fully explained to us what this scan meant and we were still in the dark. All we knew is that they wanted us to see the head of special foetal medicine for another scan as soon as we could so another day to Inverness the following week was booked.

Stu started dinner and suggested I start some drawings of the commission to take my mind of it. After 3 pretty poor attempts at drawing I declared myself done for the evening and not interested and feeling very depressed. Stu look at my drawings and took one and suggested what if you did that but added this?

Over the next few days we went backwards and forwards adding to what the other had done and started working on a few prototypes. It kept us busy and I really enjoyed the way we were working together on it.

The end result is the Yin Yang Forest necklace thinking about the balance of nature and how life is always both light and dark at the same time. I wear the prototype I made every day because it reminds me of how well we can overcome difficult times and make something out of it and it is very special to me.

We had a scan with the special foetal medicine unit the following week and Lily had no issues and continued to grow well and become the beautiful little girl we have today.